1924 French legislative election
79 |seat_change4 = New |seat_change5 = 67 |seat_change6 = New |popular_vote1 = 3,776,588 |popular_vote2 = 2,750,771 |popular_vote3 = 1,058,293 |popular_vote4 = 1,038,100 |popular_vote5 = 885,993 |popular_vote6 = 569,304 |percentage1 = 36.8% |percentage2 = 26.8% |percentage3 = 10.3% |percentage4 = 10.1% |percentage5 = 8.6% |percentage6 = 5.5% | title = Prime Minister | posttitle = Prime Minister | before_election = Aristide Briand | before_party = Republican-Socialist Party | after_election = Aristide Briand | after_party = Republican-Socialist Party }}The 1924 French legislative election was held on 11 and 25 May 1924. It resulted in a victory for the left-wing Cartel des Gauches, an alliance of radicals and socialists. These elections were deeply influenced by the political crisis affecting the government of France since the resignation of Prime Minister Alexandre Millerand. The former Republican-Socialist and leader of the National Bloc now became a champion of the national and international order by uniting the right and extreme right. In line with his rivalry with the President of the Republic Georges Clemenceau, who would be nicknamed "the Tiger", Millerand would get the nickname "Boar", having never hid his ambitions for the presidency. Millerand resigned on 13 November 1922, following his ill-fated supportive stance towards the fascists during the March on Rome in Italy. The former Prime Minister was popular in bourgeois circles and within the big business sector. He forged ties with many personalities, from military leaders, to church leaders, to industrialists. The coming elections pushed him to create the National Republican League, with its ambition to revise the constitution of the Third Republic to strengthen the executive power and also to force the resignation of President Clemenceau. Notably, François de Wendel, senator of the Republican Federation and chief financier of the organization, joined Millerand's movement. De Wendel would push his party to officially ally with the Millerand league. Many leagues of the extreme right united to form the French National and Social League, led by Marcel Bucard, which would ally with Millerand. In March 1923, a media campaign was launched calling for "the union of national forces" by the main right-wing newspapers, Le Figaro being the most prominent. The Republican Federation was the primary target of this campaign. Under increasing pressure and following the departure of some members of the party's right wing, some party leaders began to accept and support the alliance. This resulted in the departure of the moderates of the party, led by Auguste Isaac, who would form the Republican Popular Union. Louis Marin, a leader of the right wing of the Republican Federation, soon took lead of the party. These events, which radically changed the position of the French right, accelerated the formation of the Cartel des Gauches. The negotiations between radicals and socialists had already begun in early 1923, even earlier when considering the negotiations of the senatorial seats in 1921, but the formalization of the alliance remained to be achieved because of internal criticism in the SFIO by the socialist left and externally by the communists whom both denounced an alliance with a "bourgeois party", the Radical Party in this case. The purpose of the cartel morphs into an anti-Millerand front, portraying the National Republican League as an increasing threat to the Republic. They also presented an anti-clerical strategy to introduce laicity in Alsace-Lorraine. The party of the incumbent Prime Minister Aristide Briand, the Republican-Socialist Party, soon announced its support for the Lefts Cartel. The French Section of the Communist International also offered an alliance with the SFIO, but was rejected. Results'' The results of the election were considered surprising. The communists did surprisingly well for their first participation in a national election, but due to the electoral laws passed in 1919 that favor coalitions, they did not receive many seats. Despite this, the communists dethroned the Republican-Socialists and became a serious competitor to the SFIO. The Cartel of the Left won the election, with the SFIO leading for the first time in a national election. The Republican National League came in second, and the Republican Federation collapsed from 22% of the votes in 1919 to 10% in 1924. The French National and Social League received an impressive vote share as well for their first time participating, winning in territories that had been historically right-wing. In another surprise, Xavier Vallat, an incumbent deputy since 1919, was reelected under his own party, the Union for Religious Liberty of Ardèche. He was among those who left the Republican Federation during the departures of 1923. He campaigned using ultra-clerical, anti-semitic and anti-republican rhetoric, and decried in a demagogic tone the future misfortunes of the Cartel. Category:General elections in France